By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said valued pieces of jewellery seized from former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, are worth about N14.460bn ($35,485,885.65).
Chairman of the EFCC, AbdulRasheed Bawa, told the House of Representatives on Friday.
The anti-graft chairman disclosed the “estimated value” of the forfeited pieces of jewellery to a shocked ad hoc committee of the House probing the status of recovered loot at an investigative hearing.
The EFCC boss also told the lawmakers that the houses finally forfeited by the Ex-minister have been valued at about $80m.
He also said the Houses seized from the former Minister are also valued at 80million dollars.
The anti-graft chairman said Diezani’s jewellery is still in the custody of the agency, adding that it had not been auctioned but had been finally forfeited to the Federal Government.
He said court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies had stalled some of the seized assets to be auctioned by the anti-graft agency.
Bawa, however, said the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts to quickly dispose of the assets.
This, according to him, is to ensure that assets that are not only recovered by the EFCC but the entirety of the recovery agencies assets are disposed of.
“Already, the Federal Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Solicitor-General of the Federation and I think they are working tirelessly.
“We have EFCC representatives from that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with, within the mandate given to them,” he said.
Asked when the committee would wind up so the assets could be disposed of, Bawa said he was not a member of the committee to know how soon the assets were going to be disposed of.
Bawa said in its quest to transform the agency, it would soon digitise its processes, adding that it had also created and upgraded four additional departments to restore confidence.
He listed the departments to include: Intelligence, procurement, Internal Affairs and the Information Communication Technology Department.
Bawa said that no loot had been re-looted as being speculated, stressing that going forward, the EFCC would be different and Nigerians would be the better for it.
